Solar hot water
Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector
A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, bu ...
in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
is increasingly used on both new and existing buildings.
Solar thermal technologies had a sizable initial uptake in the pioneering days of the 1970s. By 2001 more than 40GWhr was produced from solar hot water technologies, equating to 0.1% of the total electricity consumption in New Zealand.
In 2006 the government announced an investment of $15.5 million over the first three and a half years of a five-year Solar Water Heating program to increase the number of solar hot water heating installations. As of 2006 there were about 35,000 solar hot water installations on domestic and commercial buildings.
There are now eleven manufacturers and importers in the industry with most of the collector system being locally made.
Barriers to adoption
The main barrier for the installation of solar hot water systems is the initial capital investment. Other barriers are the conservatism of the building industry, lack of influence on increasing the sale price of houses, conflicting interest between housing investors and home-owners, lack of adequate information about solar hot water heating, and lack of governmental support due to fears of loss of GST revenue and competition with its own state owned hydro power generation enterprises.
See also
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Renewable energy in New Zealand
Approximately 40% of primary energy (Heat and power) is from renewable energy sources in New Zealand. Approximately 80% of electricity comes from renewable energy, primarily hydropower and geothermal power.
Renewable energy by type
Renewable e ...
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Solar power in New Zealand
Solar power in New Zealand is increasing in capacity, despite no government subsidies or interventions being available. As at the end of December 2022, New Zealand has 255 MW of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) solar power installed, of whi ...
References
External links
Solar energyat the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
Solar hot water promotionat EECA energywise
New Zealand Solar Industries AssociationSolar Hot Water System
{{Renewable energy by country
Solar thermal energy
Renewable energy in New Zealand